Now, with the passage of a full half century, it is the detail you forget.
I stood at the bus stops outside the old Refuge Building for years, and never gave much thought to the building opposite.
Back then it was just a furniture shop, and as I was a first year student on a grant, living in a series of drab and worn out bed sits I gave Shaw’s Furniture shop scant attention.
And likewise I don’t think I ever went in the cinema round the corner, or took a train from Oxford Road Railway Station, and gave no attention to the features of the Refuge Building behind me.
It would be years before I went in to the former furniture shop, and only after it had become the Cornerhouse which was an art gallery, cinema, bookshop, bar and café, with superb views up Oxford Street, and some pretty interesting films which you would never see at the Odeon.
Likewise my discovery of the railway station with its wonderful 60s entrance would be delayed for a few years, and instead I fastened on the Oxford Road Corridor from town to Withington.
Which also meant that the hospital opposite Shaw’s, along with the kiosk which announced “You Are Safe With The Oxford Rubber Goods” was just a blur from the window of the 42.
Nor do I think I ever went in the Wimpy, which has over the decades changed its name and the food on offer.
And now, Shaw’s is No. 70, the Refuge Building is a hotel, and the kiosk became Euronews, although last time I passed it all seemed closed up.
But I still use Oxford Road Station and marvel at that entrance.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Shaw’s, and the Wimpy, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY, and Oxford Road Railway Station, 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
Back then it was just a furniture shop, and as I was a first year student on a grant, living in a series of drab and worn out bed sits I gave Shaw’s Furniture shop scant attention.
And likewise I don’t think I ever went in the cinema round the corner, or took a train from Oxford Road Railway Station, and gave no attention to the features of the Refuge Building behind me.
Likewise my discovery of the railway station with its wonderful 60s entrance would be delayed for a few years, and instead I fastened on the Oxford Road Corridor from town to Withington.
Which also meant that the hospital opposite Shaw’s, along with the kiosk which announced “You Are Safe With The Oxford Rubber Goods” was just a blur from the window of the 42.
And now, Shaw’s is No. 70, the Refuge Building is a hotel, and the kiosk became Euronews, although last time I passed it all seemed closed up.
But I still use Oxford Road Station and marvel at that entrance.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Shaw’s, and the Wimpy, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection", https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY, and Oxford Road Railway Station, 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
I seem to remember that a steam loco derailed on that bridge back in the 50's or early 60's. I'm unsure as to whether it fell off.
ReplyDeleteOur family owned Barratts Music Shop which was between Shaws and the pub. It was there til 1991
ReplyDelete